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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Wednesday, December 16, 2020

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Health Minister Yuli Edelstein gives a press conference at a coronavirus vaccine center in Tel Aviv on December 13, 2020. The slogan behind him reads: "Here, we're beating coronavirus." At right is Maccabi health fund head Ran Saar. (Marc Israel Sellem/Flash90/Pool)

Health minister: Fake news about virus vaccine could be deadly

As disinformation proliferates about safety of inoculation, Edelstein says vaccine has been ‘tested in every possible way,’ urges public to trust experts

Virus restrictions said likely to be reimposed next week, last for 5 weeks

Israel’s daily caseload reaches 2,867, a 2-month high, as new restrictions loom

Fewer than 20% of Israelis willing to take COVID vaccine immediately — poll

Israeli model May Tager, right, holds Israel's blue-and-white flag bearing the Star of David, while next to her Anastasia Bandarenka, a Dubai-based model originally from Russia, waves the Emirati flag, during a photo shoot in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

Analysis

Haviv Rettig Gur

Gulf normalization isn’t about fearing Iran, it’s about embracing Israel

An off-the-record conversation between Emirati and Israeli officials reveals a deeper impulse for forging ties than the immediate benefits each country has won for itself

The flags of Israel, the UAE, Bahrain and the US flying outside the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on September 15, 2020, in a tweet posted by Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, as Israel, the UAE and Bahrain sign the Abraham Accords at the White House in Washington, DC. (Twitter)

Israel, UAE initiative sets up LinkedIn community to promote tech ties

By Shoshanna Solomon

Illustrative: US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo speaks during a press conference at the State Department in Washington, on August 19, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP)

US State Department blacklists pro-Iran group in Bahrain

By AFP

Author John Le Carre, real name David Cornwell at his home in London, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Interview

‘A spiritual kinship’: When John le Carre poured out his soul on Jews and Israel

In an interview in London 22 years ago, the peerless spy novelist spoke as never before about his ‘Jewish conscience,’ anti-Semitism charges, self-enlightenment on Israel, and more

People wearing face masks seen on Jaffa street in downtown Jerusalem on December 15, 2020 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Live updates (closed)

Shin Bet to stop surveillance of virus carriers in late January

Controversial program will continue to track Israelis who refuse to cooperate with contact tracing efforts

7:14 pm

US angling to secure more of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine
7:02 pm

Biden welcomes Pete Buttigieg to 'cabinet of barrier breakers'
6:47 pm

Chinese spacecraft carrying lunar samples returns to Earth

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a meeting with the Palestinian leadership to discuss the United Arab Emirates' deal with Israel to normalize relations, in the West Bank city of Ramallah on August 18, 2020. (Mohamad Torokman/Pool via AP)

Analysis

In face of fourth Arab-Israeli normalization, Ramallah tries new tactic: Silence

After its harsh denunciations of countries that established open ties with Israel failed to yield results, the PA is now keeping quiet on Morocco’s decision to normalize

US-Israeli delegation to take 1st direct flight from Tel Aviv to Rabat next week

By Raphael Ahren and Jacob Magid

Morocco’s Jews celebrate Hanukkah ‘miracle’ of new Israel ties

By AFP

AnalysisWhat’s next for Western Sahara after Israel-Morocco deal?

By Peter Martell

Hanukkah isn’t a major Jewish holiday. This year, maybe it should be

The holiday tells of a tenacious minority maintaining its religious identity, it has a miracle, and it has light. How 2020 is that?

In light of the Leifer case: A communal mission statement

Israel must ensure that being a haven for all Jews does not mean harboring accused criminals or protecting alleged perpetrators of abuse

Hannah Lebovits

We let our kids plan Hanukkah this year — it taught me so much about the holiday

They wanted to put outside something our home to show the world what we’re celebrating, and that changed everything

Hilary Faverman

Sufganiyot redeem 2020

What our annual Hanukkah doughnut tour was missing in routine (thank you, pandemic), it made up for in taste

Illustrative: People protest in front of the Facebook office in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016. (AP/Czarek Sokolowski)

Inside story

Simona Weinglass

As Israeli media look to level field with Facebook, some see hidden pitfalls

A lobbying group of outlets hurt by loss of ad revenue wants tech giants to start paying for their content, but critics fear giving the social media juggernaut an even bigger edge

Illustrative: A man passes a Facebook screen at the Gamescom gathering in Cologne, Germany, August 20, 2019. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Australian watchdog sues Facebook over ‘misleading’ Israeli VPN app

By AFP

Chef and baker Rachel Raj. (Dániel Végel/ Boook Publishing)

Recipe inside

Hungary’s pastry queen and ‘modern Yiddishe mama’ shares her life in the kitchen

By Yaakov Schwartz

A Maccabi health care worker carries coronavirus test samples in Rehovot on December 15, 2020. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Israel media review

One for each night, 2,800 in one day: What the press is saying on December 16

By Joshua Davidovich

Infection numbers are rising faster than Hanukkah gelt futures, but people are not quite ready to start locking things down again; plus vaccinations, nominations and Liberman-ation

Top ultra-Orthodox rabbis recommend community vaccinate against COVID-19

AnalysisDefiance or compliance? Virus widens religious rift as ultra-Orthodox decry bias

By Josef Federman

COVID-19 crisis plunges 50,000 Israeli households below poverty line – minister

By Shoshanna Solomon

A panel on anti-Semitism hosted by Jewish Voice for Peace Action featured (clockwise from left): historian Barbara Ransby, commentator Peter Beinart, media studies professor Marc Lamont Hill and Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib. It was moderated by Rabbi Alissa Wise, a Jewish Voice for Peace activist. (Separate screenshots from Facebook/ via JTA)

At US Jewish anti-Zionist group anti-Semitism panel, speakers say they love Jews

Then-Likud MK Gideon Sa'ar during a Knesset plenary session debate on MK Haim Katz's request for parliamentary immunity from prosecution, February 20, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Poll shows Sa’ar’s new party gaining more ground, closing in on Likud

Netanyahu rival said boosted by addition of rebel Likud MK Shasha-Biton, at expense of Yamina and Blue and White; results show no clear path to government

Benny Gantz (left) and Gabi Ashkenazi of the Blue and White party arrive to give a joint a statement in Tel Aviv on February 21, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

Gabi Ashkenazi said set to quit Blue and White, as Gantz’s party crumbles

By Shalom Yerushalmi and ToI Staff

MK Avigdor Liberman meets with settler leadership in the West Bank, September 6, 2020. (Sraya Diamant/Flash90)

Liberman urges Sa’ar, Lapid, Bennett to join with him against Netanyahu: reports

Director Patty Jenkins, left, and actress Gal Gadot on the set of "Wonder Woman 1984." (Clay Enos/Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP)

‘Wonder Woman 1984’ with Gal Gadot hopes to lasso a little holiday joy

By Lindsey Bahr

Then-US president Bill Clinton and then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint press conference at the White House in Washington, February 13, 1997. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

A Netanyahu aide in 1998 gave Tony Blinken bad Hanukkah joke tips, memo reveals

‘Better say Hanukkah gelt’: Newly released document shows Biden’s secretary of state pick ignored humor advice meant for his boss at the time, Bill Clinton – for the better

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, speaks during a news conference following a weekly meeting with the Senate Republican caucus, December 8, 2020 at the Capitol in Washington. (Sarah Silbiger/Pool via AP)

6 weeks after election, GOP Senate leader McConnell congratulates Biden on win

By LISA MASCARO

Rev. Raphael Warnock (R) speaks at a campaign event in Atlanta to promote voting in the Senate runoff election as Jon Ossoff, a fellow Democrat also running for Senate in Georgia, looks on, December 14, 2020. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)

Facing anti-Israel charges, Georgia Senate candidate lauds Black-Jewish alliance

Kobi Shabtai, commander of the Border Police, on September 28, 2017 (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

Border Police chief tapped as next top cop; interim commissioner steps down

Ohana announces Kobi Shabtai as his pick; force has been led by acting commissioner for past two years amid extended political crisis; Katy Perry will head prison service

Commander of the Jerusalem District Police, Doron Yedid (C) seen in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim as police close shops and disperse public gatherings, March 30, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Top cops said set to quit Israel Police in protest of new commissioner pick

An Orthodox Jewish wedding taking place in contravention to COVID-19 restrictions at the Hilton Chicago Northbrook hotel, December 2, 2020. (Screen capture: CBSN Chicago)

Oversized Chicago wedding divides Orthodox Jews, foils contact tracers

About 150 guests attended ceremony as 14.8% of COVID-19 tests in surrounding county were already positive. Now community leaders fear the event could end up shuttering schools

In this file photo taken on December 7, 2020 The US Supreme Court is seen in Washington, DC (MANDEL NGAN / AFP)

US Supreme Court orders review of New Jersey restrictions on houses of worship

A self-administered rapid coronavirus at-home test kit, developed by manufacturer Ellume. (Ellume via AP)

US authorizes first at-home coronavirus test, with results in 20 minutes

By AFP

Israeli-American pianist Orli Shaham recently recorded the entire corpus of Mozart piano sonatas, which will be released over five volumes on the Canary Classics label. Volume one recently dropped. (Karjaka Studios)

Times of Israel Podcast

LISTEN: Pianist Orli Shaham riffs on recording improv master Mozart during COVID

More Headlines

Jesus Christ supporting an English flag and staff in the crook of his right arm depicted in a stained glass window in Rochester Cathedral, Kent. (Wikimedia commons/CC BY-SA 3.0/Dlloyd)

AnalysisJesus may not have been born in Bethlehem. Here’s why

By Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III

The Second Annual Liturgical Festival will take place online, with concerts from Nazareth and Berlin, December 17-20, 2020 (Courtesy Liturgical Festival)

As brothers turn Nazareth into classical music hub, festival strikes a chord

By Jessica Steinberg

In this photo from December 12, 2012, policemen are silhouetted against the Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Rare 5,000-year-old artifact from Great Pyramid found in cigar box in Scotland

By AFP

Illustrative: Coins are displayed next to a Bitcoin ATM in Hong Kong, December 8, 2017. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

Hackers say they sold batch of information stolen from Israeli insurance firm

A photo illustration of the facade of North Shore Hebrew Academy High School. (Wikimedia Commons)

NY Jewish high school’s website defaced with neo-Nazi imagery

View of chimneys from a refinery in Haifa Bay. (Shay Levy/Flash90)

Israeli investment house scores first with pledge not to invest in fossil fuels

The winner of a design contest for a Florida license plate template in support of Israel, December 15, 2020. (Courtesy IAC)

1-LUV-ISRA3LFloridians can now ‘Stand with Israel’ on their license plates

From the trials of Adolf Eichmann, which will be examined in 'Eichmann -- The Devil Speaks,' the first series produced by Tadmor Entertainment and MGM (Courtesy GPO)

New documentary series on Eichmann includes ‘never-before-seen interview’

By Jessica Steinberg

Illustrative: White nationalist demonstrators in Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia, August 12, 2017. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Russian trolls stoke online anti-Semitism when tensions peak in US, report finds

The OrCam Read is a pen-like AI-based device that reads out text to people with reading challenges, such as dyslexia, mild to moderate vision loss, reading fatigue (Courtesy)

OrCam’s AI-based reading device wins prestigious CES 2021 innovation award

By Shoshanna Solomon

Richard Hsu, Marketing VP, Karma Medical Devices, left to right; Ken Chen, Product Trainer, Karma Medical Devices; Kenny Chen, CEO, Karma Medical Devices; Efrat Shenhod-Malihi, Founder & CEO, ReSymmetry; Eitan Yanuv, Business Development, ReSymmetry;
Jill Ho, Director, Innovation to Industry (i2i) (Courtesy)

Israeli startup, Taiwan firm to make ‘smart chair’ for people with disabilities

By Jake Epstein

A Mobileye self-driving car on the streets of Munich, Germany (YouTube screenshot)

Mobileye releases video of self-driving car on Munich roads

By Shoshanna Solomon

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